Prompt 1

The bodies around my world are made up of the typical college students. I would like to think that we are all individuals, but society’s influence through the media has shaped how the bodies around me act and view themselves. My roommates are distracted with outer beauty. The media shapes the way that we view the world because reminders of our culture are expressed through television shows, billboards, radios, flyers, etc. There is no way to escape it! For example, when my roommate gets stressed, she goes shopping for new clothing that will make her feel good. Our society strives on material possessions to prove self worth. My roommates are realistic, but do worry about the perfect jewelry for the party or the new makeup to cover all of the blemishes. I find myself worrying about my appearance to look “natural,” as the magazines express. We all truly act within the boundaries of society. My brother and his friends want to be “different.” They dress and act outside the “norm.” However, they act within boundaries set by other “individuals” wanting the same thing. So they are not truly different if they dress and act like people with the same purpose.
Bodies today at the university level are similar to my immediate environment. We are just a sample of the thousands of people who attend the University of Texas. With the size of the school, individuals tend to get lost and do become just a number. People blur together to make one huge “Longhorn Identity.” Graduates leave the school, but still have pride and identify with it. When the student body is dissected into parts, my roommates represent a certain portion of the school. My brother and his friends are similar to another portion. Still there are people who fall in other categories. Some people are way more superficial and others, on the opposite side, do not care about what other people think. Every person may fall into the boundaries set through the generations of our society, but each still has individual skills and talents that hold together the university as a whole. Again, the school is just a small part of the entire society.